Sometimes taking steps to maintain or improve our health can be quite daunting. In the whole wide internet, there’s plenty of information, suggestions, and recommendations on how to do that. I think for mostly sedentary individuals and even people who are physically active regularly, it can be pretty overwhelming when deciding what’s best to do to improve one’s individual life. You also have to take into account what steps align the best with one’s current lifestyle.
There are two REALLY simple steps that you can take in order to improve both your physical and nutritional health that I personally like to live by. There are some other things I do on a regular basis, but these two are pretty much the bare minimum and neither of them includes any form of restriction. They just add to your current way of life and enhance it for the better.
Drink One Glass of Water Before Every Meal
It’s recommended to drink at least eight glasses of water each day. Depending on your weight, how active you are, and the climate that you live in that number could be even higher. According to Trent Nessler, PT, DPT, MPT, managing director of Baptist Sports Medicine in Nashville, “you should try to drink between half an ounce and an ounce of water for each pound you weigh, every day.” For instance, if you weigh 145 lbs, you should strive to drink 72.5 ounces to 145 ounces of water each day. That’s about nine to eighteen cups of water each day.
Drinking enough water has numerous health benefits:
- It boosts metabolism through hydration because when you’re dehydrated, your body isn’t functioning as efficiently.
- Helps you feel fuller, longer, which means on average you’re eating less as well
It can be daunting to remind yourself to drink THAT much water each day, though, so a good starting point would be to just make sure you drink a cup before every single meal and every time you decide to eat something. An advanced progression of this behavior (if you still need more water), would be to make sure you drink after that meal as well.
Walk 30 Minutes a Day
We can’t always make it to the gym or go to our group fitness workouts. Sometimes we wake up and we have absolutely no motivation for our workouts no matter how strenuous they are. If you’re sedentary and just starting out, it’s hard to make the shift into becoming more physically active instantaneously. That’s why I suggest, you start by walking. Walking is one of the most important activities of daily living for able-bodied individuals, it’s simple to do, and doesn’t require much effort. It also helps your body become accustomed to physical activity, should you decide to become more active in the future.
Either way if you are currently active, adding 30 minutes of walking to your current activity level will help you all the more. It’s traditionally recommended that you get at least 150 minutes of exercise each week. If you set aside 30 minutes each day you can easily make that goal. The more exercise you get the more fitness benefits you’re able to achieve. This can be helpful and done at all fitness levels, so what are you waiting for? Make it a practice to set aside some time for yourself and go for a walk.
Obviously, if you’re just starting out with your exercise practice, you might find it difficult to walk 30 minutes at first. I suggest starting out at either one minute or wherever you feel comfortable and working your way up.
Robyn J. Fitness 